The Meaning of Magic
by jennifart
Summary: Jace is sceptical of magic; it's a dark and elemental thing. So what happens when he and his friends receive letters from Hogwarts? Rated T cause I'm cool like that. COWRITTEN WITH SPECIAL-ROCK!
1. PROLOGUE

**A/N (jennfaa here): BWAHAHA! This is the EPIC brainchild of special-rock and **_**moi**_**. We'll be taking turns writing this; so I'm writing this one and special-rock will be writing the next and so on and so forth. Personally, I want to apologize for any upcoming OOCs which will probably pop up here and there, especially by me in particular, because I'm cool like that.  
The characters' personalities are taken from about CoA/CoG, even if the first 5 paragraphs are quoted directly from CoB (please, to all you scary lawyers who are reading this, don't hunt me down; I mentioned it, so it's technically not plagiarism!)  
Oh, and before I forget, neither I nor special-rock own TMI or Harry Potter. We're just cool kiddies who are actually an aquatic vampire who lives in an inland ocean and an ex-Shadowhunter turned warlock (I'm the warlock, by the way). :D**

**PROLOGUE**

"The funny thing about mundies," Jace said, to nobody in particular, "is how obsessed with magic they are for a bunch of people who don't even know what the word means."

"I know what it means," Clary snapped.

"No, you don't, you just think you do. Magic is a dark and elemental force, not just sparkly wands and crystal balls and talking goldfish."

"I never said it was a lot of talking goldfish, you-"

Jace waved a hand, cutting her off. "Just because you call an electric eel a rubber duck doesn't make it a rubber duck, does it? And God help the poor bastard who decides they want to take a bath with the duckie."

"You know what?" Alec cut in, "We don't do magic. We just use magical weapons."

"How does that even make any sense?" Clary asked. Her question didn't get answered though; three barn owls had flown in through the open window. They circled the room once and each dropped a letter at their feet. As swiftly as they came, they flew back out the window and out of sight.

No one spoke for a while; they all just looked at their feet. Jace looked down. The envelope was the old-fashioned parchment type, sealed with a blob of wax on the back. He reached down and picked it up. The wax had an imprint of a coat of arms on I, emblazoned with a badger, a raven, a lion and a snake. The letter 'H' was imposed over it.

He turned it over and looked at the address. It read:  
_Mr. Jace Wayland  
The White Room  
The Residential Wing  
New York Institute for Nephilim  
NY11210 USA_

Jace frowned. "What _is_ this?"

Alec shrugged. "I don't know. They sure have the location of our bedrooms exact though."

Clary gasped. She had turned over her envelope and she recognised the seal. "It's from Hogwarts!"

Jace raised his eyebrows. "You're telling me that this was taken out of a hog's warts?" he shuddered, imagining what the scene would have looked like.

"It's _Hogwarts_, Einstein," Clary sighed. "Don't take it so literally. But seriously, haven't you read _Harry Potter_?"

"I'm not Einstein, although I have been told that I could be his descendant. And no, although I am extremely literate, I have not heard of this 'Harry Potter' business. Is it any good?"

Clary dropped her letter in shock. "Is it any good?" she asked incredulously. "That's like asking if Magnus wears glitter and looks good in it!"

Jace frowned. "Um, okay then." He sliced his envelope open with the seraph blade he had been holding and read the letter. "Whoa, we have to go buy a _uniform_? _And _we have to go to _England_?"

Clary scoffed. "Yeah, and we have to go to Diagon Alley to buy all our supplies as well."

"Wait, we have to go diagonally?" Alec asked, quizzically.

Clary groaned, slapping her palm against her face in frustration. "No, you fool. _Diagon Alley_."

"Oh, right." Alec peered at his letter. "Wait, we'll be starting on September the first? That's like, three weeks away! And we can only come back for Christmas and other important dates!"

Jace gasped. "So we have to spend a whole year at this _English boarding school_? For _wizards and witches_? They don't even _talk_ like us!"

"So?" Clary retorted. "It'll be fun! That'll teach you for speaking too early."

"Speaking of speaking too early," said a female voice behind them. "I got a letter too." Clary turned to see Isabelle standing in the doorway, holding an identical envelope. "It seems that we're all off to learn magic at Hogwarts!" Her perfect teeth glittered as Isabelle flashed a grin.

"You're kidding me," Clary said, "You too?" Isabelle nodded.

"Yup. I got this letter not too long ago, and I thought I'd show you. But then I heard you guys talking about it in here, so that's how I knew." Isabelle paused thoughtfully. "I wouldn't be surprised if Simon got a letter too."

"_Simon_?" Clary screeched. "Oh man, next thing you know, _Luke_ is going to be a teacher there and we'll be seeing _Sebastian_ there as well." She rolled her eyes.

Suddenly, Clary jumped as the phone began to ring, its trills echoing down the hallway from the library and into the weapons room, where the four were standing. She looked at Isabelle, who was examining her nails coolly.

"Do you want to answer that? Since you're the closest thing we have to a mundie here, I'm pretty sure that you'd be the best person to operate that thing." Isabelle cocked her head to the side.

Clary opened her mouth to protest, but the phone's ringing cut her off. With a hapless look at Jace, who merely shrugged, she walked down the hallway and into the library. The phone was sitting suspiciously in the centre of the table. Clary slowly approached the table and picked up the receiver.

"Hello?"

"Hey Clary, it's Simon!"

Clary's eyes widened. "O-o-oh. Hey Simon. Is something wrong?"

"No!" Simon exclaimed. "It's everything _but_! I just got a letter from Hogwarts! Remember how we used to always go on about that! So now we're going to learn how to use the _Avada Kedavra_ curse!"

"Wow, Simon, really?" Clary said, shocked yet ecstatic. "Well, guess what? Jace, Alec and Izzy got a letter each too! And so did I!"

"Really? Wow, that's awesome! Now I can learn something that I can beat Jace in! Man, this is so like D&D where you get this epic upgrade and all your enemies get owned!"

Clary laughed. "Well, I guess it is. So we'll see you soon, yeah?"

"Okay. Later, Clary!"

Clary put the receiver back down and turned to head back out of the library, when a shape unfolded from a nearby armchair.

"So, did your vampire get a letter too?" Jace drawled.

"Yes, he did, Jace," Clary snapped back.

"So it's the whole gang heading off to England, is it?"

"Yeah," Clary nodded, "It's going to be awesome! But first, we need to get ourselves over to England in the first place."

**A/N (still jennfaa): And so, our little crew of Shadowhunters/vampire are off to Hogwarts. They might be put with first-years, they might get put in whatever year they're supposed to be; seriously, only time will tell. Oh, and what special-rock will write in the next chapter too. HAVE FUN, HUN! OH, and do review, suggestions are welcome (for me, anyway).  
Title will probably change too; we haven't actually decided/discussed it yet. **


	2. Diagon Alley

**Disclaimer: Don't own nothing :) **

**NOTE: I even made a special effort for American spelling…**

'_Attention passengers,_' the overhead announced in a clear, female voice, '_the seven-twenty-nine flight to Heathrow is now boarding at bay two. The seven-twenty-nine flight to Heathrow is boarding at bay two._'

'Just to check,' Alec said to Isabelle, brow creased, 'Mom _does _know that we're going, doesn't she?'

Isabelle fluttered her fingers in a dismissive gesture. 'Yes, I told her. She wasn't very happy about it. She thinks that magic's a bit…' she frowned, '…childish.'

Alec scowled, thinking of Magnus. 'No it's not.'

Jace was trundling Clary's suitcase in one hand, his own in the other. 'Of course it is,' he scoffed. 'Why did you think Clary wanted to go?'

Clary, who had previously been occupied with reading Harry Potter while walking and simultaneously talking to Simon about Diagon Alley, heard this and kicked out at Jace's suitcase.

It bumped into her own suitcase in his other hand, so his wrists twisted painfully and he ended up doing an inelegant jump-slash-step thing to avoid tripping over them.

Clary went back to talking with Simon, innocent as ever.

'Why did you do that?' Jace asked, annoyed.

'Do what?' Clary smiled beatifically.

'Kick my case!'

'I didn't kick your case. It was probably a rock or something in the wheel.'

Jace swore under his breath, letting it go.

'There's bay two,' Alec said, pointing.

'Wow, I hadn't noticed,' Jace said mockingly. 'I mean, that large two taking up the entire wall couldn't –'

'What's crawled up your arse and died?' Simon asked, amused.

'Fuck my life,' Jace muttered.

'It's a wall,' Isabelle said.

'Well spotted.'

'Shut up, Jace.'

Alec stood behind them both, a dark figure leaning against a column. 'I think we should have waited for Clary and Simon.'

'No one cares what you think.'

'Shut up, Jace.'

Clary and Simon entered from the inn with a few empty cloth bags. Clary's cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright.

'Is everyone ready?'

'For what? Is something _magical _going to happen? Are the walls suddenly going to _sparkle_?'

'Shut up, Jace.'

Alec hated the word 'sparkle'. It reminded him of why he was so depressed in the first place.

Simon ran his hand through his hair, exasperated at Jace. This, in itself, was totally understandable. But then he smiled. And he had this smug look on his face that Jace wanted to punch off. 'I know how to open it.'

'What, the wall? Does it require a blood sacrifice? Because since you _take _so much blood, I think you should volunteer.'

'Shut up, Jace.'

'No, really. People give you blood, so, in the words of our dear public service, you should "give back to the people".'

Simon's face had gone blank, as if he was completely expressionless and Jace's words hadn't meant anything.

Jace shrugged. 'I mean, the stuff in those bottles you carry around has to come from _some_where, doesn't –'

Simon swung his fist at Jace's face, and there was a crack as his nose broke. Jace just stared at him, shocked, as blood gushed down his skin, but recovered and spat viciously, a red spray covering the ground in front of him.

'By the Angel,' Alec said hoarsely. 'He hit Jace. He _hit _Jace. He hit _Jace_.'

Jace was abruptly furious. 'What the fuck was that for, vampire?'

'You _know_ what that was for.'

Jace saw Simon's dark eyes unwillingly flick to the blood on the ground and back. 'What, you wanted to drink my blood without having to go through the ordeal of biting me?'

Simon gritted his teeth, fist clenched. 'You fucking bastard.'

'Shut up, Jace,' Isabelle cried. 'Leave him alone.'

'I saw that look. And – _oh_, no, don't you go baring your fangs at me.' Jace spat more blood onto the floor. He sank down into a defensive stance, a seraph blade already in his grip. 'Come and get me, vampire.'

Simon lunged at him so fast Jace didn't see him coming but for the white-and-brown blur. And then he was slammed up against the wall, Simon's fangs at his throat.

'Ow.'

Simon ignored this. 'You want to say that again, Nephilim?'

Jace flicked his wrist up, so that the seraph blade was hot against Simon's neck, right where the scar from Valentine's knife was.

'Do you really want to do this, vampire?'

Simon's fangs lightly grazed the skin of Jace's throat, and crimson beads of blood swelled on the surface of the tanned skin.

Jace pressed the blade harder to Simon's neck, so that the skin there singed slightly, burning under the glass-like angelic sword. A thin line of black liquid bubbled under the weapon.

Simon hissed in pain.

'_JACE!_' Clary shrieked, her scream resounding in Jace and Simon's eardrums painfully. Apparently she had been shouting for a while but no one had listened.

'Ow,' Jace said, wincing as his eardrums rung.

Clary ran over to them, pulling the seraph blade from Jace's grip and pushing Simon in the chest so that he staggered backwards.

'Stop it! You're so immature.'

Simon wiped his mouth, smearing a red streak across his cheek. '_I'm_ not the immature one.'

Jace took the blade from Clary and wiped it on the back of his jeans as he said contemptuously, 'And _I_ am?'

Alec raised his eyebrow. 'And I thought they were almost having a heated make-out session.'

Isabelle looked kind of put out.

Simon scowled at Jace, who sneered menacingly.

'Arse-hole.'

'Jerk.'

Clary huffed. 'I'll open the wall, since you're obviously too busy being jackasses to do it.'

She tapped the stones around the deepened brick in the centre of the wall, which obligingly rearranged itself to form an archway.

'Holy _shit_,' Isabelle said, staring out into the mess of colour that was Diagon Alley.

'What the hell are they wearing?'

Clary took her arm, drawing her forward into the Alley, letting the others follow behind.

'Izzy,' she said, gesturing to all of the people, 'these are wizards and witches. They can all do magic like we'll soon be able to, and this is what they wear normally. They're called robes.'

'Robes? Will we have to wear robes?'

'Yeah, for school. Let's go get them now. See Madam Malkin's up there? That's a robe shop.'

Isabelle looked pensive. 'Do you think robes would look good on me? I mean, draping fabrics…'

Clary rolled her eyes. 'Izzy, you look good in anything. Let's go get some money.'

The girls walked away, leaving Alec with Jace and Simon.

'Why me?' he asked no one in particular.

Jace was walking with an arrogant smirk on his face, his eyes darting every few seconds or so to Simon, who was looking thoroughly depressed and macabre, the blood smeared across his cheek and down the side of his neck.

'You do know you're covered in blood, don't you?' Alec asked interestedly.

'What? Oh, shit.' Simon wiped his face on his sleeve. 'D'you have a scarf or something?'

Alec gingerly removed his own scarf, handing it hesitantly to Simon. Lucky it was black.

Jace smiled smugly.

'So what'd you guys get?' Isabelle asked when they found each other in the Alley. Jace, Alec and Simon had set up camp outside the ice-scream parlour.

'Nothing,' Jace replied promptly. 'You were the ones with the money.'

'Oh, right, sorry.' Isabelle didn't look sorry at all.

Clary caught up to Isabelle, puffing slightly. 'Why didn't you wait for me, Izzy? I just had to get – oh, hi.'

'Hey,' Simon greeted her, nodding. 'Nice robes.'

'You think so?' Clary smiled, doing a little twirl, her emerald-green robes swirling around her.

'I picked them out,' Izzy said unabashedly, pointing. 'She wanted the red ones, but they clashed with her hair.' Isabelle shuddered.

Clary gave a long-suffering sigh. 'Come on, we'll all go to the bookshop.'

Jace was clearly affronted. 'The _bookshop_? How ghastly. Though I'm sure many of the deprived teenage girls in there will appreciate my presence, unfortunately so will the little old witchy ladies, and I am not in the mood to be chased down the street followed by a ravaging horde of crones with the sole intent of practically raping me with _dentures_ – _not_ that this has ever happened to me.'

Simon raised an eyebrow. 'Happened to you before, has it?'

Jace huffed, absently rubbing his left earlobe. 'I'm not talking to you, vampire.'

'Suit yourself, granny's boy.'

Jace was perusing his parchment letter while the group walked out of Flourish and Blott's.

'It says to take the train from a Kings Cross. Where the hell is a Kings Cross?'

Simon rolled his eyes. 'It's just King's Cross, not _a _King's Cross. It's a train station in England, you moron…'

'Moron? I have been called many things, namely godly, handsome, hot, witty and unbelievably sexy, but moron was not one of them.'

'Well, now you can add it to your little list.'

'Thank you.'

'No problem.'

'I was being sarcastic.'

'I know.'

Jace was saved the trouble of lunging at Simon when a distraction came in the form of Clary tripping over the hem of her robes and screaming in fright.

She seemed to fall in slow motion, but even Simon with his vampire speed couldn't stop her. She tumbled onto the path, dropping her bags and spilling the contents everywhere.

'Shit,' she said, climbing up from the ground, grabbing Alec's offered hand. 'Thanks.'

She set about gathering her things and stuffing them back in her bags, but when she went to grab them she found that someone else had already cleaned them up.

'Here,' he said, holding them out to her.

Clary smiled hesitantly, taking them from him. 'Uh, thank you.'

'No problem. You're from America? That's pretty cool.'

'Er – yeah. I'm Clary.' She held out her hand.

He grasped it, shaking it. His hand was warm and smooth in her own. 'I'm…'

**A/N: So who will it be? Well, that's up to jennfaa…sorry it took so long and that it's boring, but wtf it's not my story, it's not your story, deal with it. Nah jokes you can flame all you want :) Signing off, special-rock.**


	3. Eeylops Owl Emporium

**A/N: Hello to the fanfic world! I'm terribly sorry that is taken me eons to write this chapter; let's just say that school is a hectic place to be right now! I've also realised that we can't really use existing HP characters (FML), except for, like, Neville. So, I'm going to fast-forward the year to 2014. You'll find out why as you read...**

"I'm Ted, but my relatives all call me Teddy." He handed Clary the bag and stood up, dusting his trousers off. "I see you're heading off to Hogwarts. How come I've never seen you around?"

"We got the letters a few weeks ago," Clary explained, shrugging. "Maybe some kids dropped out."

Teddy looked at her thoughtfully. "Yeah, I think so." As he spoke, his hair colour changed to a shocking shade of green, to which Isabelle shrieked.

"OMG, you did not just change your hair colour."

Running a hand through his hair, Teddy smiled. "It tends to do that often. I'm a Metamorphagus, which is means that I can change my appearance whenever I want."

Isabelle's eyes widened. "So you can practically wear anything and look good in it, because you can change what you look like." Teddy nodded. Isabelle's admiration was almost radiating from her.

"Okay, I'm sorry to ruin this swoon fest, ladies," Jace cut in, "but we've got clothes to buy and-" he looked at the letter "-_owls_ to buy?"

"Oh, okay then," Teddy shrugged, "I'll guess I'll see you all soon." He turned to Clary, leaning in. "You know how owls work, right?" Clary nodded. "Keep in touch, okay?" With a wink, Teddy melted back into the crowd, leaving a smitten Clary in his wake.

She turned back to the group. Jace was busy fussing over the list while Alec and Simon were looking around dazedly, hands thrust in their pockets. Clary shook her head and walked over to Isabelle, whose nose was pressed against Eeylops Owl Emporium's window. She prodded Isabelle in the forearm.

"Oh, look, Clary!" Isabelle stepped back from the glass and jabbed a finger towards an owl on the top shelf. "It's so beautiful!" The owl in question was a magnificent tawny owl. But beside the owl was another owl that caught Clary's eye.

It stood tall in its cage; its label reading a Rock Eagle-Owl. Clary cocked her head one way, the owl provided a perfect mirror image. She turned to Isabelle. "Let's go get those owls."

A few minutes later, the two girls walked out, each carrying a cage with their owls inside. "I can't wait to use my owl," Clary said excitedly.

"Yeah, to send letters to _Teddy_." Isabelle laughed. Clary nudged Isabelle in the ribs, making her laugh even harder. They walked over to the boys, laughing loudly.

"What's so funny?" Alec asked, raising an eyebrow.

The girls coughed, straightening up. "Nothing," they said in unison.

"Nice owl, Clary," Simon commented.

"Thanks," Clary smiled, "Apparently he was the last one that Eeylops had."

"Okay, okay, Clary got an endangered animal. It's all good. Can we go get, uh, wands, now?" Jace cut in.

"So, the non-magic Nephilim wants to go get his wand now, huh?" Simon said coolly, "Can I just say, he'll need two, since he's already lacking one."

Alec's eyes widened, Clary sputtered and Jace glared. Only Isabelle remained normal. "Did I miss out on something?"

"Don't worry about it, Izzy," Jace spat. He turned on his heel and stalked down the Alley.

"All he needed then was a black cape and a lot of dust to swish," Simon remarked, following the others and Jace down the Alley.

They weaved in and out of the throng of robed people, even having to shove past the thick crowd that had gathered outside Quality Quidditch Supplies. Clary paused to see what all the fuss was about. In the window was a gleaming broomstick with the words _Firebolt G6_ engraved in gold letters at the head of the handle. She turned back to see that the others had gone on without her and she scrambled to keep up, holding her hem with one hand and the owl cage in another.

She caught up with them outside what appeared to be a dilapidated looking shop. Its sign above the door read 'Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.'. In its window was a dusty looking wand atop a pale purple pillow.

"Well, here we go." Alec took a deep breath and pushed the door open. Clary swore that she heard a small tinkling sound as the door opened. They filed in, Jace bringing up the rear. Isabelle and Clary set down their cages on the bench, and Simon hit the bell on the counter.

Clary looked around. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of boxes lined the ceiling-to-floor shelves. Clary wondered if the boxes contained a wand that might become hers.

"Hello there," said a voice from behind Clary. Clary jumped and turned, and found a man, no more than thirty, whose nose was merely inches away from hers.

She scrambled back and took deep breaths. The man had tousled mousy hair, and had a pair of glasses balanced precariously on the end of his nose. His tan jacket was badly in need of repairs, although it had countless pockets, from one dangled a measuring tape that swayed to its own beat. He had one hand in his pocket and another carelessly waved a wand.

"I'm Joseph Ollivander," he smiled, "Welcome to my family's shop."

Alec was the first to regain his composure; everyone had been startled by Ollivander's appearance. "Hi, um, we're looking to purchase some wands, please."

"I realised, since you didn't whip wands out as soon as you saw me." Ollivander paused. "Except for you, young man." He looked at Jace. "Didn't your mother teach that it's rude to point knives at strangers?"

Jace looked at his hand, surprised, and stowed it away into the inner pocket of his jacket. "Sorry."

"That's quite alright," Ollivander smiled. He waved his wand and conjured up five seats. "Do take a seat. We'll be here for a while." He stood in front of the group and regarded each of them with a twinkle in his eye. "So, who's first?"

**A/N: Tough ending right back at you, special-rock. And yes, I'm assuming the old Ollivander died (may he RIP) and Teddy **_**is**_** Ted Remus Lupin. Just saying, in case you didn't figure that out already. Over and out until next time ^_^**


	4. The Most Important Author's Note, EVER

Yes, you read right, this is THE most important A/N you'll read from me. One and a half years on, I feel absolutely TERRIBLE that I haven't updated AT ALL, and I know you guys probably hate me, BUT WAIT! I ACTUALLY HAVE A CONSCIENCE! In a month's time, I will be closing down my account and moving my fanfiction permanently to a Tumblr account. I've already transitioned to that account, but I will leave this here for a while, just to let you guys know. I really appreciate all the support and kind reviews you've given me; I re-read them a while ago, and they're basically why I've decided to come back and finish the job once and for all.

You're probably wondering where special-rock went; she moved schools and I've somewhat lost a fair bit of contact with her, so I'm taking over the rest of The Meaning of Magic, so I'm really sorry about that. I also might permanently delete When Old Meets New; it's just awkward now, since there's an official version now that Cassie's somewhat written it.

So briefly:

1. This account is closing in one month on July 8th 2012 (just in case anyone's living in another year.

2. All stories are either being moved or already have been moved to jenniferwritesfanfiction. tumblr. com

3. I'm taking full control of The Meaning of Magic.

4. When Old Meets New is most likely going to disappear.

5. I solemnly swear to put more effort into updating more regularly.

Over and out, Jennifer (:

P.S.: This note has been uploaded to all of my current stories, so if you got an alert for multiple stories, it's just this same message again.


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